Suzette K. Machado
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TRADITIONAL TOURISM GRANT APPLICATION COVER PAGE Grant Cycle: _____________________________________Fall 2016 Title of Project: _____________________________________Skate, Play, and Stay in the Klamath Basin! Funds Requested: _____________________________________$15,000 Organization Applying: _____________________________________Klamath Ice Sports Inc. Contact Person: _____________________________________Suzette K. Machado Phone Number: _____________________________________541-850-5758 work/541-891-0508 cell Email Address: [email protected] Mailing Address: _____________________________________5075 Fox Sparrow Drive, Klamath Falls, OR 97601 Web Site Address: _____________________________________www.klamathicesports.org Brief Description of Project including date, time and location: _______________This project will help ________________________________________________________________us reach out to children and families in Portland, Eugene, Bend, and the Rogue Valley to come to Klamath County and skate and play at the Bill Collier Community Ice ________________________________________________________________Arena and stay over for one or more nights at one of our lodging partners. ________________________________________________________________This project runds from November 11, 2016, through March 26, 2017. Our activities and events encourage family parcitipation for both skaters and non-skaters. Each ________________________________________________________________individual event or activity are two hours or less in duration and allow our guests time to take in a visit to Crater Lake or the Tulelake Refuge, take in a RRT or Linkville ________________________________________________________________ Theatre performance, dine at one of our many restaurants, etc... The undersigned, as proposer, declares that he/she has carefully examined the requirements of the Klamath County Tourism Grant Application packet and agrees, if the application is funded, that proposer will enter into an agreement with Klamath County to furnish the services as specified, in accordance with the grant application attached. Signature of Applicant Suzette K. Machado Date 10/19/2016 If the applicant is requesting funds on behalf of another organization, the application must be approved by that organization. Signature of Organization Date Form # KCF 3005 Revised the 27th of September, 2016 Page 9 of 10 Klamath Ice Sports Inc. Traditional Tourism Grant Application Questions Fall 2016 PROJECT DESCRIPTION 1. Provide a detailed description of the project and activities. To have the necessary funds to dramatically increase our marketing budget and thus our efforts to bring in more guests from outside of the Klamath Basin so that we can increase the number of ice arena visits, strengthen our financial health and the health of our community through overnight stays. Our ice arena enhances the cultural, athletic, and artistic offerings of the Klamath Basin late fall through early spring and we both want and need increased participation in all of our activities. This proposal will encourage and attract visitors during the tourism ‘shoulder season’. We offer both skating and non-skating related activities that are family friendly and we serve ages 3 through 93! We offer special sessions and events every weekend during the our five month season, from themed general skating sessions to specialized figure skating and hockey clinics, private ice rentals for corporate team building and family reunions, hockey games and tournaments for both youth and adults, our Fifteenth Annual Figure Skating Spectacular entitled DANGER! HOT ICE!, and a curling ‘bonspiel’ (tournament). Whereas our annual ice show is our single biggest one day event and is an integral part of our season, it accounts for less than 3% of our total out-of-county visitors. It is important to note that we are asking for funds to market ALL of our special sessions and events, not just our ice show. The ice arena will open on Friday, November 11, 2016 and will close at the end of March 2017. Our target market is Portland, Eugene, Bend, and the Rogue Valley. We have consulted with Discover Klamath and are acting upon their advice as to the best strategic market for successful ‘recruitment’ and subsequent visits to Klamath Falls based upon the data we have gleaned from our website Google Analytics (who visits our website and where are they from), as well as where the majority of our previous out-of-county guests are coming from. All of these drives are 300 miles or less from the Klamath Basin. Marketing Plan – See attached Discover Klamath Plan. PROJECT GOALS 2. How many out of county visitors do you expect to attract to the project? How will you track the number of out of county visitors versus the number of locals? We expect a minimum of 3,132 out-of-county visitors or greater (we brought in 3,132 out of county visitors last season). Out of county visitors are counted by ‘show of hands’ at all public sessions and ticket sales by address/zip code for special events. In addition, The Running Y Ranch Resort has a rate code for all of our guests; WorldMark is unable to provide and track a rate code but has agreed to tally out-of-county guests on a calendar that we provide. 1 3. How are you planning on extending the out of county visitor’s length of stay? How will you encourage early arrival and late departure? How will you track the number of extra days? We are continuing to update our website and the “Visitors” page with links to local area attractions such as The Linkville Playhouse, the Ross Ragland Theater, the Crater Lake Zipline, the Tulelake Wildlife Refuge and so forth. We are working with the new general manager and director of sales at the Running Y Ranch and Resort to brainstorm and create resort-wide special events that will augment the activities and events that the ice arena currently offers. We are continuing to collaborate with Discover Klamath and will be included in their social media campaigns and so forth. Encouraging early arrival and late departure for our special events is easy as many of these guests call us to discuss the particulars of their visit and we invite them to come the day before and stay with one of our two onsite lodging partners; we always offer suggestions for activities and events that would extend their stay beyond what they would for our ice arena events. Tracking the extra days is extremely difficult unless our special event guests engage in dialog after the fact. We welcome suggestions from the Tourism Grant Review Committee as to how this might be accomplished. QUALIFICATIONS OF THE APPLICANT 4. Describe your organization/project management team. How are these individuals qualified to lead this project? Klamath Ice Sports is run by dedicated volunteers who put in over 3,500 hours each year and a small paid staff of mostly high school and college students. Suzette Machado has a B.S. in Psychology and a Master’s equivalent as a Physician Assistant and 16 years of business management and marketing experience as the executive director of the Bill Collier Community Ice Arena. Charles Cossey has a B.A. in Geology coupled with a career in finance as well as decades of philanthropic and marketing experience. We also recently partnered with Sara Irvine at Impressions Design + Marketing who has over 15 years in public relations and marketing experience and will be helping us connect with the right audiences and grow our business. As she says, her marketing management is more than pictures and words, it is intentional art and message, directed at our target audience. 5. Describe your team’s experience in operating past or similar projects. Machado and Cossey have worked together for almost 15 years and have extensive ice arena experience to draw on when marketing all sessions and special events for Klamath Ice Sports and the Bill Collier Community Ice Arena for several years. Joining forces with Discover Klamath year before last led to the addition of television commercials and advertisements in the Southern Oregon Magazine. We have seen a 348% increase in out-of-county visitors since our 2012/13 season! 2 Going forward, the addition of Impressions Design + Marketing to our team this year will mean that the majority of our marketing needs and goals will be implemented by professionals in the field! PROJECT PLAN 6. How will you give credit to Klamath County for its support in your event or project? Klamath Ice Sports website and Facebook recognition. Print recognition – posters and newspaper when appropriate. Verbal recognition at special events. 7. Provide a detailed timeline of your marketing efforts leading up to the event or project. Summer/Early Fall 2016 • Plan calendar of regular and special events for the 2016/17 season. • Pull Google Analytics statistics from KIS website visits. • Meet with WorldMark local staff and determine how best we can track out-of-county visitors who come to Klamath Falls and participate in ice arena activities. • Meet with Impressions Design + Marketing and bring them on board and create a comprehensive overall marketing plan to include a tourism rack card. • Meet with Discover Klamath (DK) and plan comprehensive marketing program (to include DK’s financial contribution) for upcoming season to include discussion of target markets utilizing our ice arena industry knowledge and DK’s track record for success with particular geographic regions. o Craft DK “Meet Me in Klamath” website side bar ad for their Outdoor Recreation and their “Events” pages. • Re-evaluate and upgrade website content and graphics with our volunteer webmaster. • Plan FB and Constant Contact social media campaign for gearing up for the season. • Solicit ice show sponsors and recruit top-level choreographer and skaters. • Logo and poster design for ice show. • Craft winter advertisement in the Southern Oregon Magazine for both general events. • Meet with director of sales at the Running Y Lodge and Resort to discuss our ice arena history, current and future plans, and resort-wide events that expand on our ice arena activities and events. November 2016 through March 2017 • Create 30 second radio spots and advertise locally on KLAD/KKRB.